Exams

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Lily123

Lily123

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Hi

I spoke to Learning Support at school yesterday as I had to sort out another Exam access arrangement (non-diabetes related) and I also asked if they could check if I was on the list for alternate room. I wasn’t. I already had rest breaks but was in an alternate room for my Year 9 exams last year. They said it was because they have too many students needing an alternate room and that because I had rest breaks I’d be sat in the back of the exam hall. They said to come back at break (this was before school). When I went back at break they had spoken to the exams officer and I now have alternate room!

That was a bit scary in that predicament, if I needed to do a correction or even just a finger prick it would distract others!

The other thing is, I want to be able to have Libre alarms switched on if I can, my hypo awareness is non-existent under exams conditions. I’m assuming, to just get the diabetes nurse to talk to school?

Sorry most of this was a bit of a rant!
 
Would having the alarms on but on vibrate work, then you were alerted but didn’t disturb everyone else in the alternate room? Then just need diabetes nurse to speak to them or wrote a letter saying it’s needed?
 
Hadn’t thought of that, thanks @Lucyr

I was thinking I would speak to them but they might need to hear it from someone more “proper” (diabetes nurse) rather than me, as a student
 
Well done for sorting this out. It is hard for others to understand the concerns we have about our levels, but I am glad that this is sorted now.

Are you in an alternate room on your own? If so it wouldn’t matter if alarums went off. I heard of one student who had their phone on a desk just out of reach so that they could see their levels if the alarm went off, but the student did not have access to the phone for other purposes. Keep talking to the exams officer and get your DSN involved if necessary. They will have dealt with this situation every year.
 
I don’t know if the alternate room is on my own, I know the name of the exams officer but no clue who she actually is
 
Sorry @Lily123. From your original post it is likely to be someone in Learning Support (apologies in our school it was a different officer)

It is important to sort all that you can well before the exams so that you can then focus on your exams.
So keep at it and enlist the help from anyone you need to.
 
Thanks @SB2015 , it’s Easter break now and then I only get a week back at school before nearly two weeks of exams… I didn’t think sorting arrangements out would take more than checking I was on the list for alternate room but then I remembered Libre
 
Can you contact your PDSN and ask how they have dealt with Libre in exams before. Often a busy person, such as the Learning support who will have loads of exam considerations to deal with, will respond very positively where someone comes with a problem along side a possible solution.

Dint forget breaks and fresh air during your revision over this holiday. It will definitely make the time that you set aside for revision more effective. I used to encourage splitting a day in three, and encouraged them to only ever revise during two of these periods.

I hope all goes well.
 
Thanks for the revision tips as well, I was planning to do half an hour x 3 of revision each day

I’m going to ask my parents to email my PDSN to get her to speak to school, it’s more me being anxious about everything bring sorted if I do it and it not all being in place
 
Well done @Lily123 for sorting it out. Good luck with your exams.
 
Hi @Lily123. I might be a bit late to this.
I teach in a secondary school. Last year we had 2 libre users doing exams. They both had separate rooms and their phone / reader was on the desk with the invigilator with sound on so alarms could be heard etc. the invigilator was the same for each exam and they knew how they worked.

It just needs agreeing with Sendco and exams officer - as part of reasonable adjustment. Once it’s been done it should be an arrangement going on. Mock exams / year exams are a good time to iron out worries and issues before the all important year 11 ones.

Also you may or may not be aware of the time addition you should have if you have a hypo during an exam. There should be extra time given to you. That will need confirming with exams officer. I think it’s 45 min after hypo treated.

Don’t forget to remind exams officer to have hypo kit for you !

Good luck
 
Thanks @Bexlee

My DSN emailed us a letter to give to school. I printed it out and gave it to the exams officer today. They said that I will be in an alternative room.

I’m now using Dexcom G6 (only as of today!) so I’ll need my phone on the desk. The idea is to put it on airplane mode so there is no chance of cheating (I wouldn’t anyway)

I’ve also got another copy of this letter in my school bag so if school question anything I have it in writing.

In the case of hypo treatments I am thinking of getting a plastic water bottle (one that’s meant to be non reusable and will be safe for fizzy) and putting about three little cans worth of coke in that
 
I start my Year 10 exams tomorrow, the letter from the hospital says to test at the start and write the time, date and result on the front of my test paper, and repeat every half hour during the exam. I’m not sure if this is overkill? I know it’s helpful if I do mess up because of BG, but because these exams are marked my my normal teachers, I’m not sure if it looks completely confusing and irrelevant to have it on there?

If you know what I mean?
 
Hi @Lily123 I think you need to treat it a practice for the real thing to see what does and doesn’t work so any problems can be ironed out.

Do you have extra time for exams? Or is it just a room to yourself?

Remember if you do have a hypo you need time to recover before you continue exam. It might even be worth checking that works too by agreement with the exams officer. The whole I’m low, treat, test recover etc. to make sure invigilators know what to do.

Good luck 🙂
 
Thanks @Bexlee

I’m in a room with a couple other people so no idea about how it’ll work if I need to treat a hypo/do a correction

I’ve got an extra copy of the letter from the hospital that I gave to school so if the invigilators don’t know for whatever reason then I have it in writing
 
Fingers crossed for you that everything goes smoothly and the diabetes fairy leaves you well alone during exam season!
 
I think my first exam went alright, English is probably one of my worst subjects

One exam down, 10 to go!
 
I'm pleased you feel you did OK, especially as you don't like English. So - got the ones you do like better to look forward to!
 
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